is it a viable option to install 2.00.9 via sourcecode..any experiences now?

Not quite sure what your asking, but I'll try to answer. Of course you can install via source code if you want to compile your own. But if you haven't built Mozilla apps before, it can be a tricky adventure, not to mention about 2 hours of compiling (on my slow machine) before you install. Also a complete un-install of Firefox later is a nightmare. And only possible if you keep your 200+ MB of source code laying around. But even then, you will still have the issue of not being able to use Firefox's "AutoUpdate" feature.

Turn's out AutoUpdate is only possible with "Official Mozilla" builds. I'm not even going to attempt to explain why as I am a horrible teacher/explainer.

So it's official... After totally trashing one of our busy dev's PM box, we've concluded that we will revert to the old way of packaging Firefox. Meaning we will download the official Firefox, package it so it is easy to remove via slapt-get/gslapt, and add some minor VL tweaks. Once installed, users will have the option of updating via Firefox's AutoUpdate (as root), or waiting a bit longer until our packagers (I guess me) notices there is a new Firefox release, and builds/uploads a VL package for it. You probably will notice a slower initial load time with the official builds, but at least you'll know right away if there is a important security/bugfix available.

This will happen for VL5.8 for Firefox-2.0.0.9 right away. We will wait until Firefox has another new release before doing this for VL5.9. So until then, autoupdate will not work for VL5.9.

It's probably going to take a couple more days until I've uploaded Firefox-2.0.0.9 for VL5.8 as I need to rewrite the build script, and rethink how the Firefox language packs are going to be dealt with since there is going to be conflicts to resolve now.

Do we gain any speed or other advantages by compiling our own version?

No, but we do run into a big issue with the Firefox branding. The folks at Firefox are very particular about how the Firefox branding and artwork can and can't be used. If we roll our own Firefox as opposed to repackaging the official builds, we may have problems using the official Firefox branding and artwork since it's not an official build released by the Firefox folks. The Firefox folks are strict enough with their position that Debian built a fork called IceWeasel, which does not use the official Firefox artwork and branding. Also, other folks who build Firefox from source for inclusion in a distribution use their own artwork so as not to run afoul of the Firefox folks. This is something we need to consider carefully.